Hold up! What’s that Infiniti odometer reading doing in the mileage lineup? You’ll find out shortly. Meanwhile, let me bring you up to speed on the latest & greatest in current events. As my readers already know, on October 13 I was hosted at Honda/Acura headquarters in Torrance, California to participate in a short “enthusiast Q&A” segment with head of Acura Public Relations, Matt Sloustcher.

This was a photo taken with senior leaders of the brand, Jon Ikeda, Jeff Conrad, and Matt (to my left) after the program, with me holding up my custom personalized Acura jersey which I was presented as a gift. Score!

Matt and his team were kind enough to get ahold of the 8-minute video segment for me, so here it is for your viewing pleasure. Once again, thanks to the Acura team for letting me crash the party for a day. I had a great time.

It’s been a busy last few weeks in the garage. I finally had a few longstanding mechanical needs on the 1992 Integra GS-R addressed by my trusted friend and Honda know-it-all, Tait, also known as “Hon-Man.” Here were the items I had him work on:

Oil and filter with synthetic blend 10W30

Manual transmission service

Recharge air conditioning

Replace hatch struts

Adjust window clearances for better wind noise abatement

Replace short shift lever with OEM

While the car was in there, it also got a new windshield so things are finally crystal clear from the driver’s seat. I treated the car to a full (and much needed) detail yesterday, even getting into the nitty gritty details of the engine bay and radiator support with a toothbrush. I’ll be sure not to put that brush back in the bathroom vanity closet.

Things ended up looking pretty magnificent, if I do say so myself, for having nearly 1/4 million miles on this motor.

I even cleaned up inside the fuel filler door. Obsessive-compulsive disorder? Nah!

Finished product tucked away in the garage.

On Friday I bid farewell to a car from my fleet. While I only owned it for about 6 months and 5,000 miles, my 2007 TL Type-S was an incredibly fun car. I enjoyed taking it on a road trip this summer to the far reaches of northern Utah and southern Idaho, but in an effort to reprioritize and evaluate financials, I simply couldn’t justify keeping this car – my 7th currently. I was only driving it on average a couple of times per month, and it had a loan racking up interest. Time to cut it loose.

So, better to let the TL go to a long-time friend who will enjoy it more than I’m able to. My friend Dave from the St. Louis area flew in on Friday night and drove it away on Saturday morning. Dave is no stranger to the Acura collector hobby, as he was one of just a few of to attend the very first National Acura Legend Meet in 2005 in Dallas with me. His 1995 Legend LS coupe has since been handed down to his daughter. Dave made it to Amarillo, Texas by Saturday evening. And by the time he reads this blog entry, he’ll be home sweet home. Congrats, Dave!

Short video with some clips from taking delivery.

Quick intermission: I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the now-viral “commercial” for a 1996 Honda Accord EX coupe that was put together by a guy in California trying to help his girlfriend sell her car. Entertaining stuff if you get the chance! (And the car is now shockingly in the $100k+ bid range on Ebay, thanks to this clever advertising).

Finally, how about a shift in gears – literally – in a brand besides Honda? I recently had the opportunity to pick up a very rare and very nice 1999 Infiniti. On the surface, it’s not much more than a rebadged, upscale 4th generation Nissan Maxima. But this I30, priced at $31,200 when it was new 18 years ago, is equipped with an ultra-rare 5-speed manual transmission. Only a handful of Touring models like this one were configured in such a manner. And today, my hope is that there’s some enthusiast out there who wants to give this one a good home.

To that end, I’ve listed it on an auction site called Bring a Trailer for a 7-day, no-reserve listing. The highest bid as of this coming Friday afternoon, November 10th will take this beauty home!

Check this out. You are looking at 7 friends on a hill overlooking St. George, Utah. And those two cars – at the precise moment this photo was taken – had a combined 1,111,111 miles on their odometers. It was a special day on Saturday, October 7th when my friend Josh and I coordinated this meet-up with much anticipation.

I’m so far behind on blogging that today’s post will be more like a newsletter on what you’ve missed. I just returned yesterday from spending a few days in the Los Angeles area where I took part in some activities at the main office of American Honda Motor Company for “Acura Week.” Invited by my friend and Acura Public Relations manager Matt Sloustcher, I drove out there Thursday evening and participated in an all-associate Q&A interview.

It was an exciting experience to talk about how I’d become interested in the brand, share feedback on current & future brand direction, and interact with people who are just as passionate about these topics as I am. Joining me on the stand were Jon Ikeda, General Manager for Acura, and Jeff Conrad, Senior Vice President for Honda. In all, the ‘formal’ program on Friday afternoon lasted only about 1/2 hour, but the campaign ran a total of 5 days with activities each day designed to educate, promote, and generate awareness for the Acura brand among internal colleagues. The level of hospitality was awesome. Thankfully, I didn’t get too tongue-tied.

Just a week prior, I was tasked with two huge milestones of a completely different nature: I ran the St. George, Utah marathon and I achieved that long-awaited “all-fives” odometer reading on my 1994 Legend coupe, in partnership with Josh who celebrated the same on his 2005 TSX. It was a rollover more than a year in the making, executed with painstaking precision with the help of a half-dozen friends who wanted to be there for the occasion. It took a lot of planning to get Josh’s car (700 miles away, in Boise) and my car (400 miles away, in Phoenix) to the same midpoint and pointed toward one another on a closed road within 2/10ths of a mile of each other. But we succeeded.

There’s much more to come on the “Fantastic Fives” achievement, as a video production is currently underway and you’ll see it soon enough. For now, here’s a 2-minute teaser!

I recently got to spent an evening with Donny Nordlicht (Cadillac) and Sofyan Bey (Redline Reviews) who were in town for a media event. Thanks for inviting me out, guys!

I have some special recognition for a couple of friends who went above and beyond the call of duty. My friend Kyle put some elbow grease into the TL and got it looking shiny and new after our Zion hike, and my friend Hy entrusted his prized TSX with me for a couple of weeks while he performed a full detail on my 1994 Vigor. The car came back yesterday sparkling better than ever before! Thanks Kyle and Hy!

Finally, along with my behind-the-scenes look at the Honda main office on Friday, Brand Champion Charles Schnieber told me about some exciting new things going on in the racing circuit. Check out a video he narrates on Civic performance heritage.

I’ll let the rest of the photos below tell the story. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Westbound at 4k+ RPMs in the Integra on Thursday

Fueling up in Palm Desert

Friends Logan, Davis, and Vince who work at Honda HQ

Acura Week schedule

With Acura PR Manager Matt Sloustcher

The below greeting card was given to all associates at corporate on Friday morning, along with an “A” emblem lapel pin.

Meeting up with my journalist friend Lance who was lucky enough to get an NSX on loan for a few days.

Hitting up “Fleetwood Square” in Tarzana before heading home. The building is in the shape of a Cadillac front end, in case you couldn’t already tell!

Last weekend’s trip to southern Utah included a drive through Vegas, including the Strip, which was a somber place to be just 4 days following the tragic shootings.

Friday morning 10/6 in St. George with mom, and with my friend Conor who’d flown in from New York.

Off to see the town in the Legend

“Face-swapping” with my 5-year-old nephew Beckam. Yikes.

The half-million-milers reunited once again.

St. George Marathon – probably the most scenic 26-miler you could ever run.

Plus, how’s this for motivation? (And they did deliver on that promise)

Mom (with more energy than she knew what to do with), Josh, Conor, and Jason

Grandma was there with her traditional poster. I had 2 cousins also running.

Trying to keep up with nephew Beckam when he sprinted with me for a block.

Finish line!

Josh getting the TSX prepped for its showtime.

Quiet on the set!

Anddddd, success! High five for fab fives.

Looking purdy with all those miles.

Interview session back at my brother’s.

Mom serving up breakfast pre-departure Sunday morning.

More TL-S glamour shots

And my ‘visitor’ at the house for a couple of weeks, Hy’s immaculate 2004 TSX.

Clearly I had the wrong car to be driving by “Legend Cleaners.”

And look what I test drove a few weeks ago: a Fir Green Mica 1996 Acura SLX Premium. Oh, boy. I passed on that.

For some reason it’s always two days after a hike when the worst cramping and soreness start. My friend Kyle described the contortions he had to make when getting out of the car last night: “I twisted out of the car like a geriatric.” And he’s only 32! A 17-mile, 8-hour-long hike can really give your leg muscles a run for their money. I paid for it on my end, too. But it was worth it.

Having grown up about 45 minutes from Zion, in St. George, Utah, I’ve spent plenty of time in the park but it never seems to get old. This specific trail – the “West Rim” – was new to me and gave a never-before-seen perspective on some of the park’s 229 square miles of beauty. Some 4.2 million people visit the park each year, but I’d dare say that most of them don’t attempt a one-day hike as ambitious as the one that we did.

Once again my mountainman (mountainwoman?) of a mother, Tia, reigned athletically supreme as she led our pack of 7 adventurous hikers on a quest through the southern Utah backcountry. Though technically a downhill hike for its majority, the West Rim trail had its fair share of grades — enough that I guzzled down about 6 bottled waters over the course of the day. I liked how with each water I finished, my backpack got a little bit lighter to carry.

The terrain on the West Rim took us through many different types of trails: Wooded forest, singletrack pathway through a field, shale rock, cliffside on sandstone, and a lot in between. All the while, we were afforded some of the best views that money can’t buy. Luckily for us, even the weather was prime – with our start temperatures at the Lava Point Campground around 50 degrees and the finish in the low 70s.

We found a consistent pace and alternated who got to lead the pack. I usually preferred to stay toward the back of the lineup, and wherever space allowed, we usually walked two abreast so we could carry on conversations with one another. At one point, Kyle and Sandy broke away for an ‘optional’ one-mile out & back side trip to “Angel’s Landing” – a spectacular viewpoint atop a 1,500-foot-tall sandstone cliff to the canyon below. I’d already seen it, and by the time we got to that decision point, we were already 14 miles into our 17-miler, so I opted to rest my legs.

By the time we finally were within eyesight of “The Grotto,” where a shuttle bus would pick us up and take us to the visitor center to get my stepdad Todd’s truck, we broke into a jog because we were so excited, and because it felt easier on the quads and knees than taking a slower walk. No pain, no gain! We finished strong. And we celebrated:

We were grateful for the chance to refuel our bodies later that evening. Kyle and Rob and I decided to consume as many carbs as we could, so we paid a visit to an Italian place on Tabernacle Street in St. George called Cappeletti’s. The lasagna was top-notch. True to tradition, mom fixed us a breakfast of hotcakes the following morning pre-departure. There’s nothing like a drizzle of maple syrup to undo all the calorie-burning we’d done the day prior!

Here is a 3-minute video, along with some photos of our weekend!

TL at Sunset in Kingman, Arizona on the way to St. George Thursday night

It’s rare for me to own a car with “only” an odometer reading of 5 digits. In fact, the lowest mileage car I’ve ever owned aside from my 2013 ILX that I got new, was my 1994 Legend coupe that had 95,000 miles on it when purchased in 2003. That car has come out of hiding a few times in recent days, and several of you have asked why I haven’t posted any updates. Check out this sunset last night at the Phoenix Financial Center 19-story building on Central Avenue.

The Legend is still trucking along, and the building itself is legendary in its own way. Constructed in 1964, it was designed to look like a computer punchcard. My favorite story about its construction is that (Legend has it!) there is a time capsule within the building that was supposed to have been removed in 2012 which has never been found. We’re now 5 years beyond that date! I’d be tearing the place apart to find it. Here’s the story of what I did this Labor Day Weekend.

Nestled at the eastern base of the 10,000-foot-tall San Jacinto Mountains, there’s a city in Southern California that’s made a name for itself as a popular weekend destination. Palm Springs is home to 44,000 people and some of the best mid-century architecture in the country. I’d be crazy to not take advantage of a 3-day holiday weekend, and it seemed like a perfect destination. On Friday afternoon, a friend and I hit the highway and headed westbound to see what the city could offer us.

Luckily for me, my 2007 Acura TL was about to pass a pretty big milestone. It took the car 10 years to rack up 100,000 miles. I had to pull over about 30 miles east of Quartzsite, near the Arizona-California state line to celebrate and capture the occasion on video.

We rolled into the Hard Rock Hotel on Indian Canyon Road and valet parked the TL before going out on the town.

The next day was primarily spent lounging next to the pool, despite the fact that it was 104 degrees outside and we had little shade to work with. One of Palm Spring’s roadside wonders is the “pink door house,” so we made sure to stop there on the way back to Phoenix on Sunday morning. Bubble gum pink, it sure is.

More pics below from the weekend’s shenanigans. Coming up later this week: A flight to Milwaukee for this year’s “NSXPO” annual Acura NSX meet-up. No, sadly, I won’t be driving out there. But I’ll at least enjoy whatever festivities I can from the comfort (or discomfort?) of a rental car.

Roadside stop in Quartzsite with my copilot

Palm Springs in all its glory, set against the San Jacinto peaks

Our hotel for 2 nights

Best coffee (ahem, “koffi”) shop in town! They have 3 locations.

The frozen white mocha hit the spot.

Other news: I got to check out & drive my friend Daniel’s 2018 Acura TLX A-Spec last week! It wasn’t my first time behind the wheel of such a car (see Maryland trip) but I greatly enjoyed a more thorough test drive.

I must say I don’t mind it one bit! Give it a clutch pedal and I’m sold!

Another shot of the Legend + PSC building last night.

Road trip to Tucson & back today with coworker Amanda for work.

Lastly, remember how some Hondas of old had “5 speed” badging like this?

A friend told me about these $9.99 Amazon emblems that say “6 speed.” I got one. As a joke, I promise. I’m not going to install this permanently! But I thought it would be funny to mock up with Scotch tape for a picture.

Merrill Vernon Hansen was my great-grandfather. Born September 18, 1902, he would have been turning 115 years old next month, but he passed away before I was even 4 years old. About the only thing I remember of him was when he’d stick his big finger in my face and say, “Are you grandma’s boy?”

Merrill was a man who I wish I had gotten to know better – along with so many of my other ancestors. But one of the highlights of the past weekend in my home state of Utah was thumbing through a few of his books where he’d written messages inside the covers. One such example was this page from his Holy Bible. He was 21 years old and getting ready to depart for the “Eastern States Mission” for his church when he wrote this down on Friday, February 29th, 1924. Not a bad penman!

Grandpa Hansen had a lot of preparations to do at that time. A week and a half later on Wednesday, March 12th, he would be departing for New York City and spending the next two years of his live giving voluntary service, with very limited contact with family and friends back home in Utah. So on March 7th, he bought shaving cream for 35 cents. On March 8th, he got a haircut for a quarter. And that same day, he bought flowers for his mother as well as for his girlfriend Della – who later became my great-grandmother. Guess they did the trick. Here was his expense ledger.

It was later in his life when Merrill opened up what we believe to be Cache Valley’s first automotive service station. I talked about that here a few years ago. He lived a long and prosperous life until his passing in 1985.

I was glad to learn a little more about Grandpa Hansen thanks to a weekend road trip up north. In the 4 months I’ve had my 2007 TL, the poor thing has been stashed away in the garage for a good chunk of that time. I decided to change all that – in a big way – by taking a 4-state, 1,700 mile journey to visit friends & family.

I had a special guest along for a good chunk of this ride: My 87-year-old grandmother (and Merrill’s daughter), affectionately known to our family as “Lamb,” took the passenger seat for a time. With a bad left hip and a frail build, she’s used to being transported in vehicles with higher step-in height, like her PT Cruiser or dad’s MDX. So when she sunk into the cockpit of my car, she said, “In these sedans, you just disappear.”

I’d only driven a mile or two northbound on Highway 89 in Logan Utah with her and had to pull over one more time – grandma hadn’t fastened her seat belt so the car was warning me with its repetitive beep. We got that taken care of. We completed our shopping trip to Kohl’s for some bath towels and a lunch date at Cache Valley’s best pizza joint, called Fredrico’s. Grandma is the most savvy shopper I’ve met: We got $36 worth of merchandise for $2.71 thanks to her gift card mailer and some clever couponing. Score!

Rewinding to the start of the trip, I experienced one of Arizona’s famous “monsoon” thunderstorms on Highway 93 between Wikieup and Kingman – drenching me enough that visibility was next to nothing and I became grateful for fresh wiper blades and grippy Michelin Pilot tires. By sunset, I rolled through Las Vegas and then had only two hours left until my nightly stop at mom’s place in southwestern Utah.

After a workday in St. George, I motored 4 more hours north. The TL makes a long-haul drive pretty effortless, thanks to its torquey V6 and low revs in 6th gear. The sound system – I’ve said this before but it deserves another mention – is absolutely rocking. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Celine Dion “Us” blasting through an ELS Surround Sound System. Most of Interstate 15 is set at 80 miles per hour speed limits so the farmland passes by with ease and quickness.

My friend Branson and I did dinner that evening in Salt Lake at one of my absolute favorite (though very “chain”) restaurants: Texas Roadhouse. I’ve known Branson for 14 years now. We initially connected – this won’t surprise any of my readers – through the car community since at the time we were both driving Acura Legends. His current Legend coupe, in fact, inspired my selection for the TL’s license plate, so it seemed appropriate that we lined the two cars up side by side for pictures.

Finally, on Saturday morning I hit northern Utah and southern Idaho. My friend Ryan (guess what – met him through his old Legend, too!) introduced me to his current collection of Audis. He has 6 cars and in that sense he “speaks my language” as a car hoarder myself.

I also had the opportunity that afternoon to visit the campus of Utah State University – born in 1888, and later, the institution that granted me a Bachelor’s degree in 2005. The Business facilities have vastly improved since my time on campus but it was fun to roam around some of the same pathways and corridors I hadn’t seen in 12 years.

Dad took me and my niece Vivienne for an ATV ride a few miles up Providence Canyon near his home and we got to check out a couple of waterfalls. He whipped up homemade tacos and we dined al fresco on his back deck in Providence overlooking the valley below. The sunset across the Wellsville Mountains always seems a bit like a postcard.

The reason for the trip overall came on Sunday morning, when I transported grandma to Kaysville near Salt Lake City for a church service. My 21-year-old cousin, Cache, just returned last week from his two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. His mission assignment geographically centered around Anaheim, California. A congregation of about 200 people, including friends, family (like me), and other “ward” members gathered in the chapel to hear Cache address the crowd. He recounted some interesting stories and words of wisdom.

Cache’s experience was a lot like mine: I spent the years 2001-2003 in southern California on a similar mission. Here my assigned “companion” and I were riding a tandem bike in September 2001.

These were some of the children in a family we taught in the community of Ramona.

Cache’s mom, my aunt Shelly, hosted an open house with enough food to feed everyone (times two) and then I hit the open road to continue my long southward trek home.

It was convenient for me to spend another night in St. George and visit a few more family members on my way. I opted to take the more scenic way home via Fredonia and Flagstaff, Arizona as opposed to going through Las Vegas again. It was a good choice: Open roads, stunning scenery, and a to-go lunch of a chicken salad sandwich from grandma.

Hope you enjoyed being a part of this journey!

Branson doesn’t like the camera! Here he was taking the TL for a spin.

Those rolls at Texas Roadhouse, though!

Odometer on Branson’s coupe. He’s had it since around 120,000.

Garlic bread, dripping in butter, from Fredrico’s in Logan.

The home in Logan where I lived until I was about 13.

With grandma, and my brother Payton, at a family member’s gravesite.

Someone likes Buicks!

Figured I might as well cross off a state for the TL since I was only a few miles away.

It was around that time that it rolled 99,000 with Ryan at the wheel.

Ryan knew about a scale that we could drive onto at a nearby manufacturing plant. We hopped out of the car.

The TL weighs 3,540 pounds without us in it.

Saturday night vibes – having gelato from Zeppe’s Italian Ice.

Scooter race!

Another page from Grandpa Hansen’s Bible.

How many choices do you need? Maverik in Washington, Utah. First time I’ve ever seen 88 octane “Clear Gas Ethanol-Free.” I just went with Premium 91.

Here’s a short and disorganized update as we get ready to kick off the 3-day Memorial Day holiday weekend. I was lucky to have my friend Derek visiting from Philly for a few days this week so I did my best to introduce him to Arizona life. We took a Saturday drive with several friends to a small reservoir about 50 miles northeast of my house called Bartlett Lake. It was a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. On Sunday, we stopped by Papago Park for some hiking, then later cooled down with some gelato at a place called “Frost” in the Biltmore Mall.

I’ve had to cycle through a few cars for some maintenance needs. The Legend sedan got an A/C recharge at Hon-Man in Tempe last week. There’s a small freon leak and it had lost its charge over about a three-year timeframe. The ILX got an oil change in preparation for an upcoming trip to my brother’s cabin in southern Utah. And the Legend coupe is scheduled to get a replacement vehicle speed sensor (VSS) next week so it’ll be ready to go to Sacramento for this year’s NALM (coming up the second week of June – roughly a 2,000 mile round-trip adventure). The VSS has lasted since 319,000 miles in 2008 so I suppose it’s time.

I finally got the NSX washed from its trip to Las Vegas for WestFest. The Vigor came out for Sunday brunch at NCOUNTER on Mill Avenue in Tempe. The Integra went to a small meet recently in that same area. And the TL continues to impress me with its fun to drive attributes every time I take it out. I installed some OEM color matched splash guards (amazingly, still available new, and with a < $100 pricetag for all 4) and a set of all-weather floor mats on the interior. Perhaps my favorite update on that car was that I picked up a Queen album on DVD-Audio. Can you imagine how good Bohemian Rhapsody sounds on max volume 40 with that media? Concert hall.

Does that cover all of the cars? Haha, I think so. Here are a few pics to hold you over until my next adventure.

I’ve driven by this sign a lot but never taken the time to stop. I finally had a reason.

Honestly not even sure what “TL” business is but they didn’t seem to mind me parking there.

What do you think of those new splash guards?

Photo by my friend Jim who stopped by.

Jim’s 2008 base TL automatic – only 50,000 miles on it!

ILX loaded up and headed toward Bartlett Lake last Saturday.

The lake gang. And my shockingly white shoulders.

Setting up camp

With Derek, hiking around Papago Park

Tempe’s historic Mill Avenue Bridge

Brunch with Lance

Vigor out and about at my former office. This building was once home to US Airways.

My friend Matt stopped by this afternoon in his 1994 Legend LS.

Suuuuuper-duper clean, 110k-mile Sirius White Pearl.

Even the engine bay was spotless

Photo from reader Tim of a 1986 dealership. I like it!

Finally, check out this Redline Reviews feature on the 2018 Acura TLX. The last 4 or so minutes are an impromptu dialogue with host Sofyan Bey from when I visited Maryland a couple of weeks ago. Have a great holiday weekend!

Twins. Check out those T-shirts, and check out the cars! This was summer 2015 at the National Acura Legend Meet (NALM) in Houston, Texas with my friend Chris from the Baltimore area.

In January 2016, Chris flew to Phoenix for the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction. It just so happened that his trip also involved a special 150,000-mile rollover for my car which we celebrated at Papago Park near the Phoenix-Tempe border. In a fitting second half to the story, I’ve now flown to his neighborhood on the east coast and rolled 150,000 miles on his Legend GS. Cool, right? By now this kind of nerdy behavior shouldn’t surprise any of my readers.

Piggybacking on this special weekend event were some other activities, including a visit from a few of our friends at Redline Reviews with a brand new 2018 Acura TLX and a taste of some of Maryland’s finest crab cakes. Sexy cars and tasty food – that’s my kind of vacation.

Friday afternoon’s PHX-BWI flight was delayed three times, making a painfully late arrival even worse (as in, 1:00 in the morning the next day). When I finally got on the ground in Baltimore, I opted to catch an Uber to a shady nearby motel rather than having my friend Chris drive the 50 or so miles to come pick me up at that hour. Room 241 of the Motel 6 on Nursery Road smelled a lot like an ashtray, and when I got up the next morning, so did all my clothes.

That didn’t matter though, we had an action-packed day ahead. The first unexpected twist was that Chris picked me up in his wife’s Chevy Cruze as opposed to a Legend or a TL, but it all made sense later on. We made our way northbound through a series of bridges & tunnels to get to his place in Havre de Grace. The Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, at 1.4 miles in length, takes drivers underneath the Patapsco River.

Chris had milestones on the brain, and I ended up rolling one on EACH of his two Acuras. The first was in his 2008 TL Type-S – a car in many ways a twin to my own recently-purchased TL. It has, however, a few things that set it apart: 20,000 fewer miles, a black interior as opposed to my ivory, and some special aerodynamic equipment in the form of an A-Spec body kit. I rolled the odometer to 78,000 miles on the way to the local grocery store in Havre de Grace for donuts.

Not long afterward, loyal Legend lover Kevin from Georgia arrived on the scene. He was wearing a blue T-shirt commemorating my 2011 milestone in my coupe. Looking good, Kevin!

We prepared our roll-out toward a burger & shake spot called Arctic Circle (much more “hometown” than the chain I had pictured it to be) where a few other friends were already there waiting for us.

Right off the bat, I recognized the “Still Night Pearl” Acura TLX A-Spec that Sofyan Bey, Redline Reviews’ host, had driven up from Virginia a couple of hours south. The TLX was his tester for the week – fresh out of the gate from a media launch in Kentucky and fresh in automotive news as it barely debuted two weeks ago at the New York Auto Show. We were lucky to catch a first glimpse.

The next stop on our tour took us to the picturesque Susquehanna River where recreational fishermen and boaters were taking advantage of the unusually warm and humid April afternoon. There were so many visitors, in fact, that we had to travel another couple of miles up the road to a grassy picnic area in order to find parking that would accommodate everyone. Chris’ Legend GS rolled its 150,000th mile at precisely the designated spot – arrival at the boat ramp. A few more folks had showed up for the party, including Marc from New Jersey in a pristine 42,000-mile 1995 Legend coupe, Karna in a 2001 Honda Prelude SH, and Jaysen and Davey in their Legends.

I got the chance to take the wheel of a couple of those cars and it’s always a treat when a friend entrusts me with his or her pride and joy. Chris had arranged for our group to visit “Legends Vineyard” in Churchville, Maryland. For $7, we were able to sample about 10 different wines. It seemed appropriate that most of the cars parked out front during our visit were Legends! A few of the other guys had to depart shortly thereafter, but Kevin, Chris, and I dined at MacGregor’s in downtown Havre de Grace where I sampled the most popular menu item: crab cakes. They were divine. These pics are for you foodies! (Looking at you, Brad and Tim)

Tartar sauce & cocktail sauce on the side. That potato, though!

As the sun set on our busy Saturday, we admired the scenery from the Havre de Grace Promenade at the waterfront.

Sunday’s events were a lot less structured in nature, and that made for a nice low-key day. Chris & Kera served up scrambled eggs, sausage, & toast which I washed down with some super-smooth chocolate milk from a dairy up the road in Pennsylvania. Chris and I decided to check out one of the local salvage yards but it had only 3 Legends in inventory and they were already pretty well picked-over.

It was already time to start making our way toward the Baltimore/Washington International Airport, so we cruised down I-95 toward the city, stopping for a bite at Chop Pit Beef for lunch. It’s a historic spot that I’d describe as “Arby’s but a million times better.” I had the ham & beef combo sandwich with the house BBQ sauce. To Die For!

Many thanks to Chris for being such a great host and to the many friends who came out to play.

IN OTHER NEWS…

For years (about 7, to be exact), I tried getting ahold of the license plate “ACURA” for one of my cars. The Arizona DMV’s website always told me that the combination was unavailable, which came as no surprise. Initially I settled for “THACURA” which had my initials in it. But miraculously one day, it popped up. I snagged it and proudly put the plate on my 1994 Legend GS sedan.

The story got even better this past weekend, when my friend Dan had me over to his home in Mesa to show me his new 2013 Viper. In the trunk of the Viper was a gift for me – a vintage Arizona license plate with ACURA on it. A real plate, mind you. Last registered in 2001. What are the chances? And the best part is that the design is period correct for my car. According to AZPlates.com, this maroon style ran from 1980 through 1997.

The DMV issued me a new registration sticker and allowed me to put the old plate back into use – some 16 years after it had last seen the roadways!

Few more pics from the Maryland trip below!

Signing Kevin’s trunk liner. This has become a tradition.

Rear 3/4 view of the new 2018 TLX A-Spec.

TLX interior.

Too excited for my own good.

Looking northward from the bank of the Susquehanna River.

Geek mode, activate.

What better place to take a convoy of Legends?

Parked outside…

Party time at Chris’ place! Set up like bowling pins. We just needed another one front & center. Maybe next time I’ll drive out and play frontrunner.